Can Sleep Apnea Cause Insomnia?

There are two main types of sleep apnea that people usually develop. One important thing you should all be aware of is that in most cases, sleep apnea can lead people to have additional medical complications like heart and blood pressure issues. Additionally, sleep apnea not only has the ability to affect your inner biological system but also your psychological system including changes in a person’s sleep schedule.

I think we all know how awful the feeling of not being able to fall – or stay asleep – is. If you’ve been experiencing sleeplessness, make sure to track your periods of alertness and sleep because these two words are not synonymous to each other. You can only be diagnosed with insomnia if your periods of sleep are drastically shorter than your periods of being awake.

For example, someone who is having a hard time sleeping will usually fall asleep at some point during the night – even if it’s an extremely late hour. However, insomnia occurs when your sleep schedule becomes non-existent due to the inability of falling asleep for extended periods of time. Or, you fall asleep at one point in the night and then wake up and have a hard time going back to sleep.

Statistics prove that insomnia starts to become more common amongst people as they age. It had been reported that 30-35% of adults usually end up suffering from the disorder, with it being more common amongst older adults. Aging tends to have some biological effects on the human body such as causing circadian rhythms to change, as well as, increased sensitivity to things like sound and light, frequent urination, etc.

As you can see, the chances of people experiencing health issues begin to rise the older they get. However, aging is not the only factor that can lead to insomnia. Research has proven that sleep apnea is also directly linked to insomnia. A reason for this is that insomniacs tend to wake up multiple times during the night. This could very likely be caused by sleep apnea’s effect of breathing disruption, which ultimately allows your body to send signals to your brain in order to wake yourself up. Evidently, sleep apnea could be the reason to why some people experience insomnia.

If you are experiencing symptoms of insomnia then make sure to conduct the appropriate sleep tests to find out if they are related to sleep apnea.